Well, last night I turned on my car and heard a weird noise that I haven't heard before, and figured I'll just drive it off, so it went away. I was driving and about 3 minutes later the check battery light went on. Not sure what it is, because everything seems fine. I'm guessing it's my alternator though, anyone got an idea?

 

describe the noise.

 

Not really sure and can't really describe it, but it sounded somewhat like the noise it made when I first changed the belts and missed one of the 'slots' and they rubbed against eachother. I fixed that though so it can't be them rubbing against eachother. The noise is gone now, it just happened yesterday for a bit and now it's gone.

 

have u opened up the hood and checked?? open up the hood and chk the belts. mostly the alternator belt it might be off

 

The alternator drive belt took a sabbitcal. Probably several of the reinforcing strands broke allowing it to stretch (strange noise) and about 10,000 revolutions later it gave up the ghost.

Desert honda is correct, opening up the hood would have saved a lot of typing, but hey.........

P

 

Well, it turned out the alternator was bad and the belt was perfectly fine. Now, I changed the alternator but it seems I have another problem on my hands. First we put one on that we got from the store, but it turned out that the wheel didn't spin. When the car was turned on, the belt would spin and the wheel wouldn't budge so it made this loud obnoxious noise and it smelled like burnt rubber. Now that that's fixed, I seem to be getting the same noise, but only when I turn on the lights and give it gas.

Does anyone know what the problem might be? The car runs fine, no noises no nothing. When I start the car up though, it makes the noise for a split second and goes away. Then it started raining so I turned on my lights and as I pull out of the garage and give it gas it starts to make the noise. So I let the car roll on its own without giving it gas it doesn't make the noise. Seems to only happen when my lights are on and I give it gas.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I figured I'd let you all know the details.

 

first off my advice ,,, put a honda factory alternator if u dont have 1 installed ,, git rid of the aftermarket ones
As for the noise chk the belts for proper tension

 

From when I checked, the belt had proper tension. I turned on my car and the noise was constant, and then gave it some gas and the noise went away. Not sure what it could be that now I only get the noise from the start. Is there any way of going about this to get rid of the noise, or should I just get used to it?

 

if u have a noise it is best to diagnose the problem it will only get worse.....
My advise remove 1 belt at a time and run car to see which component is not noisy ,
lets say u remove alt/water pump belt and noise goes away u got an issue with either 1 of those parts, if so spin pulleys by hand and try to hear if either is louder than normal , also grab the water pump pulley and go up and down chk for play if so pump is no good

 

a glazed belt will squeel, proper tension or not.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Vanilla Sky &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">a glazed belt will squeel, proper tension or not.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i totally agree

 

Wow that sucks considering you have to pull the axle to replace the alternator but that is the fun part.

I agree with desert H Honda parts rule. Especially with warranty on parts+labor instead of just parts. Then you would just have to say FIX IT and get a rental for about an hour.

 

i've done the alt without pulling the axle. just ahve to work more efficiently. you can take your airbox off ans slide it out behind the manifold.

 

That would be less work. and not so much overhead. Either way 3rd gens are gay. I know because I screwed up and bought one. Talk about no room to go with no power. Wife likes it, hell I'm happy. I am going to do a 5-sp Tranny swap to it. What can I say I got bored.

 

it is a lot easier to remove alt from underneath,, u dont totally have to remove axle from car just 32mm nut and brake loose lower ball joint, then pry from tranny and slide it over and let rest on the fork, not even 5 minutes work ...

 

Same thing that I did.

Well, still don't know what that noise is. And what do you all mean by 'glazed' belt?

 

Older belts get hard & slippery. When they start slipping they get shiny, then you have to overtighten them just so they almost stop slipping. Overtightening isn't good for your alternator bearings.

 

I'm not sure what it is anymore. It seemed to only do it a little bit, then when I turned the lights on, and now it doesn't seem to stop. I'll be driving and then when I come to a stop it'll start making the noise, or it'll just make the noise the whole time as I drive. This really sucks, and I don't want to have to go to work and back tomorrow with that damn noise.

I just loosened the belt, and tightened it a bit too. It makes the noise either way, but it's probably the belt?

 

I think if it's the belt it would make SOME difference when you tighten & loosen it. What about the other belts?

Put some water or belt-dressing on one belt at a time. If the noise changes, you've found which belt is making the noise, get a new one. If they're old get all new...

Otherwise, it could be a bearing in the alternator, PS, AC, idler, or ?? A glazed belt seemed like an easy thing to check, if only to rule it out.

Can you use a gardenhose/stethoscope to pinpoint the location of the noise?

 

the LXi trims are just as fast as the 4th gen, are lighter, and IMO, handle marginally better. the only thing that they lack is aftermarket support, which doesn't bother me too much.

 

Well there was no noise when I first got the new belt. Then later on it made a little noise when I turned on the car. Now it's the same as before, it'll squeek for like 5 minutes into the drive, and sometimes it just starts to squeek when I'm turning. Don't know what the hell it could be, and it definitely can't be the belt since I changed it? I'm guessing bearing on the alternator?

This sucks ***!

 

find out where the sound is coming from, that's all you can do.

 

do the eliminating process....remove 1 belt at a time first the p/s ,,start car if noise not here u got the culpit........if still noisy, remove a/c belt ,,if noise still there , remove alt belt, now this belt runs alt and h2o pump , if noise goes away, spin each pulley by hand and see if 1 is noisy and also chk for play up and down ,, if still noisy with belts off then obviouselly u got something else going on

 

Maybe it's not the alternator belt................

P